Chapter 506: Hostage Negotiation
Xiao San naturally heard such a big commotion as well, but he had always been cool and calm. His eyes scanned the rear-view mirror, but he did not stop the car. He swiftly made a decision and stepped on the gas pedal to leave the scene as fast as possible. What could they do if they stopped? The car behind them had skidded off the path, but there were no injured people, and all four of them could fight. What about his side?
They had an important hostage with them and Ye Feng, who was a weak burden. If they stopped, they would not have helped—they would only have added to the trouble. If worst came to worst and Han Chu's group really could not handle this, the worst result was that both parties would have hostages. That was better than having all of them become hostages.
This decision was made in a split second. At the same time, Han Chu's voice came through the communicator. "Do not stop. Continue driving toward the designated spot! Tony, you owe us your head!"
Anthony had tears in his eyes. He grabbed the laptop and swiftly checked the route a second time. "Okay, this time, there will not be any more problems!"
Han Chu could not do anything but chuckle mirthlessly before ending the call. Next to him, Ye Shuang had curled under the window and pulled a thick coat over herself. As she pulled on the zipper, she asked Han Chu, "How's the situation?"
Han Chu unbuckled the seat belt. He pushed open the door, pulled out a pair of binoculars from the compartment, and looked out the window. "There are two cars coming from behind. We have just passed an oil mill, so they were probably hiding there.
"The explosion wasn't that powerful. It was probably there to force us to stop by destroying our cars. There is nowhere close that they can set up a surveillance, so they left a random amount of time after we passed the mill."
In just a short amount of time, Han Chu had analyzed the whole situation. With regards to why the bomb was buried at this place, there were many factors, like the width of the road, the shape, the position...
"But to ensure that they did not miss any of us, there should be another roadblock ahead." As the two cars behind them approached, Han Chu could see clearly who was sitting inside. "Four people in one car. Jennifer is sitting at the front. This woman sure bounced back fast."
Once she heard that Jennifer was there, Ye Shuang pulled on the prepared mask and tossed a rope to Han Chu. "Tie me up." Han Chu lowered his gaze and saw that Ye Shuang was as wrapped up as a dumpling, and his lips could not help but twitch. "You plan to use yourself to drag the time out?"
As he spoke, he did not stop moving. He accepted the rope and started to tie the knots.
"What else can we do? I am forced to do this." Ye Shuang sighed sadly. "Our car is broken, isn't it? We can't run, so the only choice is to try our best to make sure that Jennifer stays as well."
They did not mind so much about the ambush ahead. With Xiao San's ability and Anthony's power over information, if they just needed to escape, it should not be too difficult. When the knot was done, the two cars chasing them also stopped. With Jennifer leading, eight people got out of the cars, and each of them had a weapon pointing at Han Chu's group.
This was the first time that Han Chu had gone into a negotiation with one of his own people as a hostage. A normal person would not be able to break the ropes as easily as Ye Shuang. Once their movement was limited, there might be an accident, and they might turn into cannon fodder. He did not have too much confidence in his acting, so he decided to use an expressionless face to face them. He pulled out the tied up Ye Shuang and crawled out from the car.
Xiao San's people had not worked with Han Chu before, and they did not know what to do but to follow the other two out the car for now.
Jennifer looked as arrogant as before, but there was a barely discernible madness in her eyes. For Ye Shuang, she could see how dangerous the situation was from micro-expression, but Han Chu could not. The professional issue aside, the man did not have the ability to see someone's expression clearly from more than ten meters away.
Seeing the 'hostage' whom Han Chu was holding, Jennifer's eyes lit up. She licked her lips and took a step forward with the gun pointing at Han Chu. She hoarsely said, "Give him to me."
Han Chu was not worried and raised his gun at Ye Shuang. "Why should I?"
Ye Shuang, who was acting alongside Han Chu, was not worried, but Jennifer was unsettled. She desperately wanted to say something but stopped herself at the last moment. "...Give him to me, and I can let you all go safely."
Han Chu smiled easily. "I don't quite believe you..."
He wished to drag this out, so it was normal for him to play with Jennifer. Since the person valued the 'hostage' so much, he would naturally use this to his advantage. Furthermore, no one had contacted Jennifer yet, so at least this proved that Xiao San's group was still safe, and the car that had left ahead had not been stopped.
Negotiations went both ways. Han Chu was worried that he might be exposed, and he had to make it so that it looked like this was his last, desperate stand. Only by having the other party understand would Ye Shuang's chance of being exposed be lowered, and the chance of them succeeding would be increased. With this plan in mind, Han Chu wanted to say something else when he was squeezed by Ye Shuang silently.
"Something is wrong with her voice." Ye Shuang lowered her voice and then changed her voice to plead for help. She then purposely struggled twice so that Han Chu would pull her closer. "Be careful. She might just start firing; the woman is highly unstable."
Han Chu shuddered.
Jennifer indeed almost fired. She was under a great amount of internal pressure. The only thing that could save her was the hostage whom Ye Shuang was pretending to be. What Han Chu had said was within the normal range for a negotiation, but it already annoyed her to the point that she wanted to fire a warning shot. If Ye Shuang did not stop Han Chu, one of Xiao San's people would have died.
Having her rationality pulled back by the 'hostage', Jennifer pressed her lips and warned for the last time, "Give me the man, and I promise I'll let you go."